Bofors clean chit too late: Amitabh Bachchan

Source :

Last Updated: Wed, Apr 25, 2012 19:40 hrs

Amitabh Bachhan on Wednesday said that he was relieved after the main whistle-blower in the Bofors scandal revealed that the Bollywood superstar's name was planted by Indian investigators in the case but added the clean chit has come "too late".

Addressing reporters in Mumbai after Sten Lindstrom, the former head of the Swedish Police and the whistle-blower in the Bofors scam exonerated him from a role in the case, the 69-year-old actor said he and his family had to suffer insult for no reason.

In an interview to a website, Lindstrom admitted that he was the "Deep Throat" who leaked more than 300 documents over the scandal and added that Indian investigators during a visit to Sweden in 1990 had "planted the Bachchan angle."

Reacting to the news, Bachchan, revered as a demigod by many in India, said, "For 25 years, we lived with the humiliation, we were young and could cope. But my parents have not witnessed this clean chit... these developments would have made them happy."

"I remember that when these allegations were levelled against me, my father had asked me if I had done anything wrong but I could not say anything that time. He was disturbed about the allegations. But today they are not with me to hear about this," he added.

Wearing a white kurta, Bachchan said, "We said from the beginning we were innocent... but now to have this from the very authority handling the investigation... it makes a difference."

"What compensation can anyone offer? We lived with this for years," he said.

Bachchan, known as Big B, however said he could not understand why Lindstrom has offered the clarification clearing his name only now.

"I quit politics because I could not get used to it... I left before the Bofors scandal broke... but some people tried to link my exit from politics to it," he said.

The Bofors scam, was a graft scandal relating to the supply of Howitzer guns to India by Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors that allegedly paid massive kickbacks to Indian politicians and defence officials to bag the multi-billion contract.

The case, that related to the sale of more than 400 howitzers, contributed to the election defeat of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1989, two years before he was assassinated.

In his latest revelations, Sten Lindstrom, who led the probe and has identified himself as the whistle-blower, said there is no evidence that the late Indian Prime Minister took a bribe.